PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader retired Captain Mohammad Safdar on Monday moved the Peshawar High Court seeking pre-arrest bail over an ongoing inquiry of the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, against him for allegedly holding assets beyond means.

Mr Safdar, who is a son-in-law of former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, filed the bail petition with the court saying the NAB inquiry against him was based on mala fide intent as he had appeared before its combined investigation team on multiple occasions and produced all the information sought by investigation officers but even then, warrants for his arrest were issued by the NAB chairman.

He said he had appeared before the NAB investigation team on different occasions, while a call-up notice was issued to him on Sept 17, 2020, along with a questionnaire and he’d returned it with a detailed reply.

The petitioner said he visited the NAB regional headquarters in Peshawar on Oct 8 in compliance with the call-up notice and was given a notice regarding the issuance of warrants for his arrest.

Insists probe based on mala fide intent, meant to humiliate him

The petitioner, who is a former MNA, said he feared imminent arrest and humiliation by the NAB and therefore, he invoked the constitutional jurisdiction of the high court to secure the pre-arrest bail over the asset inquiry against him.

The petition was filed through a panel of lawyers comprising Abdul Lateef Afridi, Barrister Syed Mudasser Ameer, Manzoor Khan Khalil and Barrister Yaseen Raza Khan.

The NAB’s executive board had approved in 2018 the start of probe into a citizen’s complaint that Mr Safdar possessed assets disproportionate to the known sources of his income, a crime under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The petitioner contended that Section 24 of the NAO empowered the NAB chairman to allow the arrest of a person during inquiry or investigation but that power, which had been vested in him to ensure proper inquiry and investigation, had to be exercised within the parameters provided by the law.

He added that once all the records had been provided to the investigation team and the inquiry/investigation had been completed, there was no need for his arrest.

The PML-N leader said the power of arrest under Section 24 of the NAO was neither absolute nor unfettered and it had to be exercised fairly and judiciously within the parameters provided by the law.

He further said Article 9 of the Constitution declared that the ‘petitioner will not be deprived of his liberty save in accordance with the law’.

Mr Safdar said it was by now settled in light of the superior court judgments that in the absence of some solid and cogent evidence or complaint, the NAB had no authority to harass and torment citizens through vague call-up notices and unwarranted arrests.

He claimed that during the course of his political career, he had also filed the asset declarations with the Election Commission of Pakistan, with the one made in July 2018, before the general elections.

The PML-N leader said he belonged to a respectable family and had held very respectable positions in the service of the country and his arrest would result in his humiliation in the eyes of the people.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2020